Sharlene Mawdsley wrapped up a memorable 2024 outdoor season with a brilliant victory last night in the 400 metres at the Galà dei Castelli meeting in Switzerland.
The Newport, Co. Tipperary runner was first past the finish line with a time of 51.35, propelled by a trademark tremendous final 100 metres. Austria's Susanne Gogl-Walli finished second with Dutch runner Lieke Klaver coming third.
Super Sharlene Mawdsley 💚
A signature late surge saw her beat top names Susanne Gogl-Walli and Lieke Klaver in Switzerland! 👏pic.twitter.com/Zv88mo6njJ— Balls.ie (@ballsdotie) September 9, 2024
It means the end of a tremendous outdoor season that includes a personal best, reaching a European final, relay medals in Rome and Nassau plus an unforgettable if heartbreaking fourth in the women's 4x400 in Paris at the Olympics.
Sharlene Mawdsley can finally enjoy a holiday
Mawdsley sat down with fellow Tipperarians The 2 Johnnies recently and actually spoke about how she extended her season to run the race last night. Switching off entirely after the physical and emotional strain of the Olympics would have been the easy thing to do, but she lined a six-week holiday up to start right after last night's race.
Obviously it was up and down. And then you come back, and you have a bit of a dip, and you just don't want to keep going but I have one race left. On the 9th of September, at a random meet in Switzerland.
It lines up with my holidays, so I have to do it. It aligns with my holiday and I want to take six days, so I'm just going to keep running till then so the six weeks starts from then, not from the end of the Olympics.
Mawdsley also provided some insight on where this race sits within the World Athletics framework, and how prize money works for races like this.
They're called world tours, and this is a world silver tour. It goes Diamond League, gold, silver, bronze.
Sometimes you get an appearance fee, and sometimes you'll win money in the race. If you have a contract- like I have a Puma contract - and there'll be bonuses if I hit certain times, or if I place a certain place in competitions.
The Galà dei Castelli website lists the prize money for winning the race - and indeed all races for men and women - at 2,500 swiss francs, roughly about 2650 euro.
It'll be a happy and well-deserved break on the back of last night's performance.
